The following news item from the Associated Press published in the July 26 Times Argus states: “The tough statement by Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, coupled with Kerry’s inability to broker even a temporary cease-fire after a week of shuttling around the region, signaled the fighting is likely to drag on, with more than 820 Palestinians and 38 people in Israel killed so far.”

From the above statement, the reader might assume that the 38 people were actually killed outside of Gaza in Israel. The facts are as follows, as of Friday: 832 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza of whom around 80 percent were civilians and of those, 192 of the dead were children. Thirty-three of the 38 people reported as “killed in Israel” were actually Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza while blowing up the homes, schools, infrastructure, and hospitals of Gazans often done with US- supplied weapons such as Apache helicopters and F-16 jet fighters.

It is interesting that Kerry “shuttles around the region” unable to “broker even a temporary cease-fire.” I would think that with the over three billion dollars that the American taxpayer provides to Israel each and every year, he might have some kind of leverage if only he and Congress had the political backbone to stop the carnage in Gaza.